Subject: Re: Topic Appropriateness
From: Abraham S. Mantell (mantell@polar.sunynassau.edu)
Date: Fri Sep 15 2000 - 13:35:46 EDT
Hello Ray,
Wow!!! You were serious!!! I would love to know the history behind the
development your courses!!! Perhaps there was a time (30 - 40 yrs ago)
when the top 5% of 2 YR college math students could handle those topics.
I do not mean to pry, but like eveyone else who read your post, I am very
curious which CC does this!!! If you do not wish to give the name, would
you at least say in what state? (or e-mail me privately - ;->)
Do ANY of the students walk away from these with a good understanding?
What is the success rate of students in these classes? Don't students
protest, or complain to the dept. chair, dean, or college president???!!!
How many of your faculty even have a mastery of those subjects? At my
school, with 80 full-time faculty members, I'd estimate perhaps only 5 or
6 of us would be able to teach the courses without tremendous
preparations!
Still hard to believe, but I will take you for your word!!!
Good luck!
Abe Mantell
Mathematics Department
Nassau Community College
Garden City, NY 11530-6793
On Fri, 15 Sep 2000 RAYFan@aol.com wrote:
> <>
>
> Wish I were, Abe. This is real. We are really teaching these topics (at a
> community college) and I'm stuck right in the middle of it. I was handed a
> course outline to teach that had Galois theory (and all the prereq algebra
> and number theory) on it.
>
> Interesting that you thought the topics I listed were so off the planet that
> I had to be joking!
>
> In response to Bill Colburn: I'm not listing my college because I'm not
> tenured yet and already in trouble for voicing my opinions on this in my
> department.
>
> Ray
>
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